Alarming

“There’s gotta be a better fire alarm. Tell me someone’s invented a better fire alarm.”

Chance Furlong’s ears were pressed against his skull as he angrily removed the garage’s fire alarm, the apparatus screeching incessantly at the lack of a fully charged battery.

“What kinda logic is that anyway? Small beeps indicate a fire, and a dead battery is grounds to give me a heart attack?! What moron thought that up?!”

Nearby, Jake Clawson scribbled into his sketchpad, his own ears buried into his headfur. “The moron that’s making millions of dollars a year.”

A fresh battery now in place and the fire alarm safely back against the wall, Chance nursed at his aching ears as he walked back to the couch. “Then they can use that money to come up with a better one. Holy Kats, I’m gonna be hearin’ that noise for days.”

Jake slowly unfolded his ears and leaned back in thought, flipping away from the sketch he was working on and started on a new page. “I think I may’ve thought of something.”

---

A few mornings later found Chance looking at a beaming Jake as the latter held up a smartphone. “Wi-Fi alarm system.”

Chance arched a brow. “Go on.”

“It’ll detect smoke and a carbon monoxide leak, and it’ll send an alarm via the app.” Jake showed him gleefully, punching away at his phone’s screen. “Depending on whether it’s a real fire or not, you can turn it off through the phone. And, it’ll just send out a vibration when the battery is dying.”

The tabby had to smirk. “So, no more false alarms?”

“No more. In fact, I’m going to work on something similar for the hangar’s systems. Should take me about a week, but I should have it fully operational then.”

“You’re a miracle worker, Jake.”

“I’ve been told so.”

---

It was overwhelming. Chance didn’t recall the fire alarm being that loud before. In fact, it was probably even louder. So loud that it had practically cracked the windows in his bedroom.

Falling out of bed, he scrambled for the door, ears down, nose up, inhaling to find the source of the fire. But, he didn’t smell any smoke at all. Another false alarm? Just what had Jake done?

“I thought he fixed it!”

He ran down to the garage, forgetting about using the app Jake had coded, ready to tear the alarm out of the wall when he realized that the sound wasn’t coming from the room. In fact, it was even louder than upstairs, and he could feel slight vibrations coming from underground.

“The hangar?”

Teeth gritted, he made his way down to their base.

And, that’s where he found Jake, sitting amidst computer parts and scrap metal, headphones covering his ears. Yelling to get his partner’s attention didn’t do any good, so Chance tapped him on the shoulder several times until Jake looked up.

“Oh, hey, buddy.” The ear-splitting noise was turned off before Jake removed the headphones. “Didn’t see you there.”

“Nor did ya’ hear me! What was all that?! It practically broke every window in the garage!”

“Huh. I didn’t think the pitch was that loud.”

“You didn’t think… Are you testin’ that new alarm for the hangar? Is that your plan? To make whoever breaks in here’s brains leak outta their ears?”

“Naw, I finished the hangar’s alarm system a couple days ago.”

Chance stared at him, registering what he’d just heard as he once again nursed at his burning ears. “Then what th’ heck was that just now?!”

“Oh, that.” Jake held up his sketchpad. “Just testing out my new Banshee Missiles.”

---

 END